Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another edition of Nerdificent. I am
Speaker 1: one half of your host, Danny Fernandez, sitting across the
Speaker 1: virtual world from me. If you want the way, holding
Speaker 1: it down, doing it big, all the above, I can
Speaker 1: see you when you're like four K or whatever. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: now this is four K. I was just complaining to
Speaker 1: Joel about this. Yesterday. I was shooting an audition and
Speaker 1: I actually have to cannon see one D right now.
Speaker 1: This one is technically the studio one for Super Punch,
Speaker 1: and the one over there is the one they got
Speaker 1: me for my house. I tried to shoot an audition.
Speaker 1: It knocked over and I broke the l C D
Speaker 1: on A three thousand. Yeah, so I'm rare. I was
Speaker 1: very I was who if you I'm It was so
Speaker 1: good that I rewatched Ada after that because I was
Speaker 1: in a space where I was so mad, and by
Speaker 1: the end of Acuta, I was like, well, nothing matters,
Speaker 1: nothing is real, Material possessions don't matter. All that matters
Speaker 1: is friendship and the ones we hold dear. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things where it's like I'll
Speaker 1: get it fixed, but we're in a time where we
Speaker 1: just can't go to a camera repair shop. Like if
Speaker 1: it was any other time I just today, i'd go
Speaker 1: to B NH, hand it to him and then pick
Speaker 1: it up when when it's ready. But now we're in
Speaker 1: a time where it's like that camera's broken until I
Speaker 1: don't know right right, I still feel like you could
Speaker 1: do a drop off and just like put it on
Speaker 1: your doorstep or something and hope for the best. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this that's the one. It's so funny because I feel
Speaker 1: like this is the one time I really relate to you, Danny,
Speaker 1: because this and that's the only thing I'm type about
Speaker 1: is my electronics, where it's like I don't like knowing
Speaker 1: that it's broken. I need everything to be fixed so
Speaker 1: when I need to use it, it's ready. If it's
Speaker 1: if it's broken, I don't care. I don't care that
Speaker 1: I have this one and it's perfect for right now
Speaker 1: and streaming and that we're probably who knows when we're
Speaker 1: going to be in the studio. I need the other
Speaker 1: one ready to go, and I was so ready to
Speaker 1: do cooking streams whatever. I've been talking too much. I
Speaker 1: think we should introduce our guest, uh man friend. We've
Speaker 1: known each other for so long, uh we've we've who
Speaker 1: I think it's been. It's five years this month, Yeah,
Speaker 1: five years this month, holding it down. I mean you
Speaker 1: may have you've that that voice you here, you've heard everywhere.
Speaker 1: You've heard it in Final Fantasy seven remake, You've heard
Speaker 1: it in Sailor Moon, You've heard her on previous episodes.
Speaker 1: You know, hear her in so many video games. You know,
Speaker 1: she is starting to become one of the staple v
Speaker 1: A s that you here in a game and you're like, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: I know that voice. Uh, it is none other than
Speaker 1: the Erica Chi. How you doing. Hi. It's so good
Speaker 1: to get to chat with you all. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for inviting me for this, and I get to
Speaker 1: talk about one of my very favorite things in the world,
Speaker 1: my aesthetic, my sort of cool surreal identity, cyberpunk. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Now this is a solid anime because it
Speaker 1: changed how anime was viewed in America. It came out
Speaker 1: January one one, just a month before I came into
Speaker 1: this world, a month before I started walking the Earth.
Speaker 1: It's it's almost like this this was my red carpet,
Speaker 1: my red motorcycle to ride into this world. But yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's true. It was like a real, real cultural
Speaker 1: ambassador for uh all Japanese culture to the United States,
Speaker 1: which which is which is in some ways very terrifying.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's eight. But then also the manga had
Speaker 1: started releasing in nineteen two, six years prior. Um And
Speaker 1: I don't know, like how how deep do I was
Speaker 1: only deep because I even want to talk about because
Speaker 1: so much to say, because I read, I've read through
Speaker 1: all the manga. I have it um uh And but
Speaker 1: that was a little while ago. I think most folks
Speaker 1: are familiar with the movie from But then also everybody,
Speaker 1: whether they know it or not, is familiar with the
Speaker 1: cultural context it provided to cyberpunk to sci fi too,
Speaker 1: like just the look of films since then. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and a lot of animation to like a lot of
Speaker 1: other um animated properties pay tribute to it a ton
Speaker 1: on top of the I was gonna stay on top
Speaker 1: of people like Jordan peel Ty, what td um, you know,
Speaker 1: Stephen Universe, like all those saying that it heavily influenced them.
Speaker 1: It's very interesting too, like if if we just start
Speaker 1: from the influence of the manga, if you read through
Speaker 1: the manga, which is gorgeous, the line work is like
Speaker 1: there are some some line work because there, um here's
Speaker 1: there's so much to you, uh talk influence line but
Speaker 1: first we'll talk about the line work that is just
Speaker 1: out of this world. And there's just some designs of
Speaker 1: the landscape in the cities where you can totally see
Speaker 1: how it might have influenced Toriyama once he gets to
Speaker 1: the sand saga, because it's like it very much has
Speaker 1: that same line work, especially like the car design, which
Speaker 1: I love Toriyama's design on cars. I love the short
Speaker 1: stocky cars. But even someone pointed out on Twitter and
Speaker 1: then I went and checked and even though this person
Speaker 1: was like one of those like nerd historians, so they
Speaker 1: were on it. Uh that Akira. When Akira released the
Speaker 1: movie the January one eight and September seven is when
Speaker 1: Vegeta was introduced. So uh so when you look at Tetsuo,
Speaker 1: the like short stocky always in someone's shadow, you know,
Speaker 1: big big forehead, short king, and you look at the geta,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I could see I can see how
Speaker 1: you can see that in that shouldn't be like oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm a I think this person would be perfect to
Speaker 1: counter Goku. Yeah, tom it was such an influence on
Speaker 1: the entire industry, and like Toyama, he did it almost
Speaker 1: all him himself, and he looked, I just the he
Speaker 1: had released Domo before this, which was an award winning
Speaker 1: comic again sort of like touching on the themes of
Speaker 1: like psychic you know, psychic powers and the Little Girl writers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's it's so it's so bonkers, like the detailing
Speaker 1: in it, like every single window in the building. And
Speaker 1: it was just him, although fun trivia effect um one
Speaker 1: of the he did get assistants um for some of
Speaker 1: the line work and some of and some of the
Speaker 1: I think for the marvel editions for uh from Satsikon,
Speaker 1: who is legendary anime director. He didn't Godfathers in Perfect
Speaker 1: Blue and Millennium Actress, and so it's so cool when
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, these like cool selmis worked with each other.
Speaker 1: I want to touch on the plot, but I want
Speaker 1: to touch on something fun about the plot. And what's
Speaker 1: something o Tomo he himself said, which if you get
Speaker 1: the Akiday Anniversary edition, you get to have this interview
Speaker 1: when he was interviewed right after the movie about Akida,
Speaker 1: and it's it's very interesting because this movie that is
Speaker 1: so influential. The base of his story of Akida is
Speaker 1: uh based off of Tetsugen twenty eight, which if you
Speaker 1: don't remember, everyone remembers astro Boy, But Tetogen twenty eight
Speaker 1: is about this little boy who controls this giant robot
Speaker 1: numbered twenty eight actually have like a figure that's like
Speaker 1: based off of him. But uh, he was saying like
Speaker 1: he he was apt to do a sci fi story
Speaker 1: a cereal because he did like short stories for us
Speaker 1: a magazine called Weekly Young, which is like Shown and Jump,
Speaker 1: but for older men. It's it's a target audience. Where
Speaker 1: wanted a fifty year olds. So Show and Jump is
Speaker 1: usually for young boys. And um and and I say targeted.
Speaker 1: Anyone can read it, but that's that's their target. And uh,
Speaker 1: he would do Weekly Young, and they asked him to
Speaker 1: do a serial, and he did a lot of sci
Speaker 1: fi stuff. So he said when he was thinking of
Speaker 1: you know, ideas, he said, he said he wanted to
Speaker 1: Uh he was really inspired by Astro boyd Tetsu Tetogen
Speaker 1: twenty eight and so he uh did he wanted to
Speaker 1: base it, which is why Kanetta shares the same name
Speaker 1: as the little boy in Tetogen uh twenty eight, Like
Speaker 1: that's the exact same name. Um and yeah yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's why Akira is number twenty eight. Uh yeah, so
Speaker 1: so so that so his this influential work was already
Speaker 1: influenced by something and and it kind of stops there
Speaker 1: because Tetogen twenty s got a more of a shown
Speaker 1: in fun friendly. He also, you know, he also cited
Speaker 1: one of my favorite comic artists, uh, Mobius Jendrereau, like
Speaker 1: the French heated French sci fi um I think people
Speaker 1: might be from Valerian was based off of one of
Speaker 1: his comics, and it's just this beautiful detailed sci fi
Speaker 1: landscapes and and you could definitely see it in the work.
Speaker 1: And then also, uh so go Ishi e no relation
Speaker 1: to my knowledge that there's these punk films, you know,
Speaker 1: the idea of the we think of cyberpunk and we
Speaker 1: and dystopia, and we think of like the kid motorcycle gangs,
Speaker 1: and that comes not just from it definitely from Akida,
Speaker 1: but there were punk films so far. It's sort of
Speaker 1: like talking about the bossoku culture, which is sort of
Speaker 1: like the youth bicycle gangs in Japan, and there were
Speaker 1: these punk films that so go Ishi e did, like
Speaker 1: Panic High School and Crazy thunder Road from the seventies
Speaker 1: and eighties that um Otomo definitely cites his influence. And
Speaker 1: so it's it's so cool to see all of the things,
Speaker 1: you know, all these seminal works that are sort of
Speaker 1: homages to other previous seminal works. And yeah, and we
Speaker 1: can get into two, like the specific, very specific influences
Speaker 1: that Akida had on Western culture and movie making and
Speaker 1: sci fi and cyberpunk. Um. I actually, and I'm curious,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure your listeners might be able to weigh
Speaker 1: in on this. And I don't know if you guys
Speaker 1: know about this, but because two was when the manga
Speaker 1: started releasing, which means he was like working on it
Speaker 1: for a long time before that. But also in the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two was when Blade Runner came out, And
Speaker 1: there's always argument about which influence. But I don't understand
Speaker 1: how either could have influenced each other, I think, and
Speaker 1: I've seen sources that say, like he said he was
Speaker 1: influenced by Blade Runner, like maybe he saw that, but Erica,
Speaker 1: I feel like they could they could have all been
Speaker 1: influenced by something going on like at that time, because
Speaker 1: that's how when if he brought up a curetor Yama
Speaker 1: a curatory on actually started dr Slump in nineteen eight,
Speaker 1: so and he was drawing those cars and stuff back then.
Speaker 1: So I think that they were all kind of similarly
Speaker 1: influenced by media, by manga that was coming out at
Speaker 1: that time. So I think they kind of give and
Speaker 1: take from each other. It's kind of like nowadays when
Speaker 1: you have two movies that come out that are are
Speaker 1: semi similar, and even though you know that they didn't
Speaker 1: copy from each other, it was just like clearly something
Speaker 1: sparked in them this idea by seeing some of the
Speaker 1: news or things that were going on, or even um,
Speaker 1: some of the movies that were coming out about time
Speaker 1: travel or just like the the futuristic look. I even
Speaker 1: think of that when I look at, uh, not the Incredibles,
Speaker 1: but essentially the mesh between mid century modern and futuristic
Speaker 1: type of like Jetsons type of stuff like the Jetsons
Speaker 1: and so um, yeah, I don't I don't to answer
Speaker 1: your question. I mean, and maybe people can weigh in,
Speaker 1: but I don't necessarily know if they one influenced the
Speaker 1: other as much as they might have been watching some
Speaker 1: of the same media that then spun off into their heads, right,
Speaker 1: and I have. Okay, so cyberpunk is my thing. I've
Speaker 1: done just so much consumption of it and researched into it,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot about it. Um. One reason
Speaker 1: is because I am uh Asian American, I'm Chinese Japanese,
Speaker 1: and it's cyberpunk was the one place that I won't
Speaker 1: type of genre I saw growing up that was this
Speaker 1: mix of Western and Eastern. So the idea of sort
Speaker 1: of all the sort of Eastern aesthetic and and a
Speaker 1: lot of themes sort of couching in Western terms. And
Speaker 1: now it's a little there's problems with it, you know.
Speaker 1: It's it's the idea is sort of like all this
Speaker 1: Asian aesthetic and sort of like Asian culture, and like
Speaker 1: there's there's why are there so many Japanese signs around
Speaker 1: if there are no Japanese people in yours? Like if
Speaker 1: I see if I hear your cast speaking Chinese, their
Speaker 1: damn well better be a Chinese person in it, um.
Speaker 1: And And so now I'm seeing a lot more representation
Speaker 1: and that like just cultural in general, which is good,
Speaker 1: but like, yeah, it's it's and so it's interesting. I
Speaker 1: think one thing that definitely Blade Running, you saw a
Speaker 1: lot of uh sci fi and cyberpunk in the eighties.
Speaker 1: That because Japan was the world leader in technology at
Speaker 1: the time, and you know you see this in Akoda too,
Speaker 1: and that I think gave the West a lot of anxiety. Um,
Speaker 1: the idea that in the future there'd be this dystopian
Speaker 1: future in which Japan ran any everything in America was
Speaker 1: no longer this world power. Um. So that's why there's
Speaker 1: the giant geisha on the billboards in in Blade Runner,
Speaker 1: because suddenly the standard of beauty is this Asian femininity
Speaker 1: as opposed to you know, blonde, and that was like
Speaker 1: supposed to be a little dystopian and scary to people.
Speaker 1: Or the idea of yeah, you know, like Marty McFly's
Speaker 1: boss is, is this Japanese business man. You know, you
Speaker 1: see a lot of sort of like j or and
Speaker 1: like Naka Toomi. You know, yeah, I was a say that.
Speaker 1: So you see it sort of in the as the
Speaker 1: backdrop and a lot of films and and media in
Speaker 1: the eighties in the West. But in Ocada, like I
Speaker 1: have this huge right when they were saying, I don't
Speaker 1: know what was maybe like ten years ago almost now.
Speaker 1: They were gonna adapt Okada for the screens, but they
Speaker 1: were gonna set it in Manhattan. And I was like,
Speaker 1: let me tell you why Okada is so uniquely Japanese
Speaker 1: a story. Um, there's so many themes that it like
Speaker 1: a lot of japan sci fi. It comes from anxieties
Speaker 1: about the bomb, like and it's always so called out
Speaker 1: you know. It is like Japan reconciling with youth culture,
Speaker 1: Japan reconciling with you know, sort of the the tech boom.
Speaker 1: And I like most other things, the Americans actually make
Speaker 1: an appearance in it. It's not in the film, but
Speaker 1: in the manga. The American Navy is waiting outside of
Speaker 1: the harbor in Tokyo and they carpet bomb the city
Speaker 1: because they have this anxiety. They're like, oh, we're afraid
Speaker 1: of the growing power of these Japanese children. It's better
Speaker 1: to take them all out than to allow it to
Speaker 1: be a threat to the world. Um, And like that's
Speaker 1: you know, sort of honest. I don't know, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: want to I want to talk about yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about that, but I will go into
Speaker 1: the synopsis of the story. Yeah, we should explain we're
Speaker 1: talking about about, yeah, the movie, because there there's a
Speaker 1: lot of that, and I want to get into the
Speaker 1: changes between the manga and the movie because there are
Speaker 1: a lot All of it is very interesting. But first,
Speaker 1: if you if you've never seen Akuda, here's how it
Speaker 1: goes down the movie at least, and then we'll go
Speaker 1: even further detail when we talk about the difference, because
Speaker 1: it's like they take a lot of the you know,
Speaker 1: components of the manga and just compressing. Yea, yeah, not
Speaker 1: to not to make all of our weaves listening angry,
Speaker 1: but I think it's safe to say most people have
Speaker 1: seen the movie because the movie is way easier to
Speaker 1: digest the manga series, which in its first volume is
Speaker 1: three hundred pages, and and Otomo is worthy. Adomo is dropping.
Speaker 1: It isn't like a easy, you know read where you're
Speaker 1: just going through. He's like explaining and laying out delicious exposition,
Speaker 1: and I think it's worth reading if you haven't. It
Speaker 1: is pricey. I have all six volumes now and they're
Speaker 1: about twenty bucks each, So if you do that math,
Speaker 1: you're you're it's an investment. But Amazon they are shipping
Speaker 1: them right now you know they don't delay the shipping
Speaker 1: on the occult or there's a lot of there's a
Speaker 1: lot of independent bookstores that you should definitely check. I
Speaker 1: mean definitely that. Yeah. I always that over it. I
Speaker 1: haven't been a like all of my spots, like I
Speaker 1: was trying to support, uh, just a quick quarantine corner Joy,
Speaker 1: which is one of my favorite restaurants out here. It's
Speaker 1: a Taiwanese restaurant. They shut their doors just they said,
Speaker 1: we'll be back after but we want to protect our employees.
Speaker 1: I was like, cool. So I've been like ordering from
Speaker 1: Donut Fran. I've been trying to order at the local spot.
Speaker 1: And this is my personal curse on any and all
Speaker 1: the meat heads who have been hoarding weights plates and
Speaker 1: then trying to flip them online. I hope that you
Speaker 1: get a Charlie Horse while trying to hit a pep.
Speaker 1: You deserve it. You deserve it, you sniveling snake. Uh,
Speaker 1: but hope plateau. I hope you plateau and and just
Speaker 1: don't understand what's going on. Seriously, it was so hard
Speaker 1: to get a pull up bar. You don't even know, uh,
Speaker 1: but so I coulda opens and this gang led by Kanida.
Speaker 1: The heroics are chas seemed to be chasing down a
Speaker 1: rival gang called the Clowns, and they get into it.
Speaker 1: It gets spicy, and we see Tetsuo and kind of
Speaker 1: have like a you know, a little brother older brother
Speaker 1: back and forth oftentimes and uh. And so Tetsuo speeds
Speaker 1: ahead of them to catch this last clown guy catches him,
Speaker 1: dwinks him on the head. Uh. And then there's a
Speaker 1: creepy old baby. Uh. Intercut with this scene is a
Speaker 1: man who was shot with a creepy old baby, kind
Speaker 1: of walking through the city streets escaping, uh, escaping being
Speaker 1: chased by um, you know these dogs which are like
Speaker 1: canines and something that blew me. It was like, you
Speaker 1: don't see this in movies. He pops those dogs, both
Speaker 1: of them, and and it's it's it's interesting, which within
Speaker 1: like this. This is why I love being a storytell
Speaker 1: This is why I like a creator, because it's interesting
Speaker 1: because it's an introduction to like this, like being like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is an animated movie, but we're not pulling punches.
Speaker 1: Content content warning. It is very bloody. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of body horror, a little a little bit of you know,
Speaker 1: sexual violence that never gets to this is content warning.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, this is one of the
Speaker 1: most graphic animated movies I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: I was rewatching it, especially like unedited. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I remember watching it when I was younger, when
Speaker 1: it was edited. I don't know, probably, but when you
Speaker 1: were little, well yeah, I mean I would illegally, like
Speaker 1: most anime people watch things illegally. Um, But I don't
Speaker 1: know if I got like bits and pieces of it,
Speaker 1: so I don't remember, or maybe I just blacked out.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, like covered my or like
Speaker 1: just didn't fast forward through these parts. But yeah, yeah, sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm meanna cut everyone body. Yeah, but within that scene,
Speaker 1: you see like the bystander children in Horror, So it's
Speaker 1: all it's acknowledging that this is a like a horrible thing,
Speaker 1: but like also being like, yo, this is this movie
Speaker 1: is about to go off. So anyway, the man who's
Speaker 1: trying to help this little creepy man escape uh gets
Speaker 1: shot up by the by the authorities, and the kid
Speaker 1: seems to disappear. Uh. And onlooking we see Ryu and
Speaker 1: k who we don't know their names at this time,
Speaker 1: but they see the kid disappear. Now we were back
Speaker 1: to this race. Uh, Tetsuo's gonna jink this guy in
Speaker 1: the head jinks them, goes ahead, sees the same creepy
Speaker 1: kid who was on the other side of town, and
Speaker 1: he collides with him and there's a big explosion. Tetsuo's hurt.
Speaker 1: Uh and and then the government authorities come and not
Speaker 1: only do they get to there's a second creepy baby
Speaker 1: who comes who helps capture the first creepy baby and
Speaker 1: UH they also um, they also carry out Tetsuo with him,
Speaker 1: and then they get arrested. And UH. In that time,
Speaker 1: also in the scene, there's a moment where the kid
Speaker 1: when UM, when I always forget the name of the babies,
Speaker 1: but the first baby, uh Takahashi, Yes, Takashi, And I
Speaker 1: remember Takashi because I remember being like, oh, there's no
Speaker 1: way Takashi six nine got his name from this. But
Speaker 1: Takashi sees uh the handler get killed, and he like
Speaker 1: makes an earthquake happen that causes this water tower to fall.
Speaker 1: And that's actually a nod to UH in the Mango
Speaker 1: when Takashi first interacts with uh Kaneta and his gang
Speaker 1: the second time, UH, he makes that same water tower
Speaker 1: that's designed in the movie fall in the manga. But
Speaker 1: then we flat fast forward there in the there caught
Speaker 1: by the authorities. The authorities are like, these guys have
Speaker 1: nothing to do. They weren't trying to get this baby. Uh,
Speaker 1: and they get uh in Kaneta sees k I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: she fine, I'm gonna help her to get out, helps
Speaker 1: her get out and they all kind of leave together.
Speaker 1: He's trying to do this weird uh sexist I saved you,
Speaker 1: so you owe me some buns uh type of thing
Speaker 1: and she and she and she's like thanks, no thanks,
Speaker 1: I'm out and she rolls out, and then Kanetta leaves
Speaker 1: with this group uh. And this in the in essentially
Speaker 1: this is the event that leads towards the kind of
Speaker 1: a big event of the movie. Tetsuo interacting with Takashi.
Speaker 1: They discover that his brain patterns are or something they've
Speaker 1: never seen before. Um. Very different than why his brain
Speaker 1: patterns were different in the manga, But in the movie
Speaker 1: it's it's through interacting and they they figure he might
Speaker 1: become a strong esper, a psychic, like uh, this famed
Speaker 1: Akita that they keep mentioning and you here it feels
Speaker 1: like Akita's talking to Tetsuo win his head and he's
Speaker 1: kind of kind of getting jittery. Uh. So this progresses
Speaker 1: the story down uh these multiple storylines where we follow
Speaker 1: Tetsuo in his interaction with the government, and then we
Speaker 1: follow Kanetta who is trying to uh figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on with Tetsuo because he's like, he comes back,
Speaker 1: he leaves, he and then when he comes back and leaves,
Speaker 1: he has this like he kind of freaks out because
Speaker 1: uh and he kind of yells because he yells at
Speaker 1: Kaneta because he feels like Canetta always feels like he
Speaker 1: has to save them. So he gets captured by the
Speaker 1: government again. And then we're following k R You and
Speaker 1: they're like Benefactor who seems to be this movement who
Speaker 1: know about Akira and they're trying to expose it and
Speaker 1: the resistance movement. And then they are they are they
Speaker 1: have a mole inside this sort of uh government council
Speaker 1: who is the opposition leader and leverage them. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it helped them and helped them like, um kind of
Speaker 1: blow this a key ra thing out the water. And
Speaker 1: eventually this all leads down the road to probably the
Speaker 1: thing everyone remembers, which is the event in which Tetsuo
Speaker 1: is in the in the what would be the stadium
Speaker 1: for the Olympics at the time of Okay, yeah, by
Speaker 1: the way, Olympics in Tokyo, like that is, you know,
Speaker 1: and then except this disaster befalls and so they're not
Speaker 1: sure they might have to cancel it and everything, which
Speaker 1: is oh boy, yeah, I know right, I think it
Speaker 1: is canceled. It is, it is, yeah, and it's just
Speaker 1: like it's so that's so scary that they that they
Speaker 1: did that. I don't know, So it's so spooky. And
Speaker 1: my man's Goku was a mascot, I know it would
Speaker 1: have been. Why was there in February and they were
Speaker 1: so excited about it, and you know they you know,
Speaker 1: I mean Japan in Tokyo's it's so beautiful. Um. But
Speaker 1: although I saw somebody posted because I was looking up
Speaker 1: a kira um like the hashtag on Instagram, and I
Speaker 1: guess it came out in theaters recently, like you could
Speaker 1: see it again in theaters, um, And somebody posted a
Speaker 1: picture of their ticket and I was like, what what
Speaker 1: was this? And it was April four, and I was
Speaker 1: like what I don't know if it was in Japan.
Speaker 1: They might have been, They might have been quarantined differently
Speaker 1: than US. Oh yeah, Japan was not. They did not
Speaker 1: quarantine until a lot later. Partially some people think it
Speaker 1: might be because of the Olympics. Yeah, so this is
Speaker 1: all taking a place against the backdrop of preparations for
Speaker 1: the Olympics in Japan, which is wild. And what eventually
Speaker 1: happens is that the psychic energy that his body is
Speaker 1: producing after a string of events where Tetsuo just kind
Speaker 1: of owes off and he starts lashing out against the government,
Speaker 1: and there's like these like, um, what what's the word
Speaker 1: I'm looking for? Like the end of times folk who
Speaker 1: have been claiming a doomsday cult. There's a doomsday cult
Speaker 1: about Akira And there that's the word I was looking for.
Speaker 1: And they're following see them in the background, which again
Speaker 1: we'll get to this later, but they play a huge
Speaker 1: role in they're not even named, like this character you
Speaker 1: see isn't even named in the movie, but plays a
Speaker 1: huge role in the manga. And that's what was interesting,
Speaker 1: you know, reading the manga after watching it, as you
Speaker 1: can tell that because Otomo he was talking about it
Speaker 1: in the interview that it was so hard to fit
Speaker 1: all of that movie, and he knew, and he and
Speaker 1: he and he showed like his notebook of where he
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, this is what we can fit, this
Speaker 1: is what we can't. And so I think it was
Speaker 1: very smart to like be like, Okay, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: these nods for people who have read it, so they'll
Speaker 1: they'll know. But the story itself is son how do
Speaker 1: you see. It's a lot of it is added to
Speaker 1: sort of the backdrop, so you know, the political machinations
Speaker 1: and the sort of doomsday cole and the civil unrest
Speaker 1: and all of that that actually plays a bigger role
Speaker 1: in the manga is framed as just a backdrop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the anime, and I think it works really well. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's one of and it's one of those things were
Speaker 1: watching it where I totally a thousand percent agree with
Speaker 1: why we uh we You can't just remake it. You
Speaker 1: can't set it in New York if you do. And
Speaker 1: we're going to get into the final kind of chapter
Speaker 1: of the movie and then start our open discussion about
Speaker 1: the comparison right after these messages. Hey, everyone, welcome back
Speaker 1: to Nerdificent it's your boy if you are the way
Speaker 1: in the virtual stew with Danny Fernandez Erica Eachi and
Speaker 1: we're talking about Akita and before we were setting up
Speaker 1: kind of like the first uh tuish acts of the movie,
Speaker 1: and the final act is probably I think one of
Speaker 1: the most memorable because there's something very poetic, and movies
Speaker 1: do this, I think, uh we've seen this done in
Speaker 1: a lot of like the Marvel movies and all this,
Speaker 1: but like I love when you kind of set a
Speaker 1: stage for a final scene and it's a stage that's
Speaker 1: kind of been hinted at this this Olympic arena, Olympic Arena,
Speaker 1: and you and in this Olympic arena, there's this like
Speaker 1: almost throne there and what happened was and this isn't
Speaker 1: as clear in the movie as it is in the book,
Speaker 1: but the government planned on having a secret base under
Speaker 1: where the Olympics were being planned, and that's where Occuda
Speaker 1: was being held. So Tetsuo ends up going there because
Speaker 1: he wants to face Acda. He's hearing about this guy.
Speaker 1: He wants to face it. He finds out that the
Speaker 1: Acuda isn't a person, it's a collection of his body
Speaker 1: parts from when they stopped him. And then one of
Speaker 1: the coolest scenes to happen ends, which is they use
Speaker 1: this weapon called the Soul shoot down on Tetsuo and
Speaker 1: it takes it was it's because it's beautiful because there's
Speaker 1: this moment, uh, kind of Do's gun runs out of battery.
Speaker 1: They're kind of facing each other, and then you just
Speaker 1: see this blue lights around Tetsuo and you just see
Speaker 1: his skin start to like flare up, and then they
Speaker 1: shoot it down, but it isn't enough to take take
Speaker 1: him out. It was, oh man, this from this movie.
Speaker 1: It just goes full throttle, um and uh. And there's
Speaker 1: just like Canada is able to retreat, try and recharge
Speaker 1: his batteries, and in this time, Tetsuo creates a metal arm. Well,
Speaker 1: he creates a metal arm from the rubble, and now
Speaker 1: he's inside the stadium, sitting in the street. His girlfriend
Speaker 1: from before comes to him to kind of consult with him.
Speaker 1: But at this point Tetsuo is mad with power, not
Speaker 1: really making any sense. Um, it's sorry, not really making
Speaker 1: any sense. And and now it's it's the final stage
Speaker 1: because now his body and we find out why he's
Speaker 1: had so much headaches, but his power is so much
Speaker 1: that his body can't contain the how much his UH
Speaker 1: power is growing. And that's when we get into one
Speaker 1: of the often thought about, often reference to Akira body
Speaker 1: horror scenes where his body just starts to mutate. It's
Speaker 1: it's just it really that from that I think that sequence,
Speaker 1: from when his body starts to mutate until the end
Speaker 1: of it, to me, it it like moves like an
Speaker 1: ariaster horror because there is no real the The only
Speaker 1: suspense isn't the is Tetsuo gonna kill this person? Is
Speaker 1: It's like, oh my gosh, what like how can he
Speaker 1: contain this? And he his body is growing, He's crying
Speaker 1: out for Canada. He just totally flipped, see like he
Speaker 1: it's almost like he reverted back to his old self
Speaker 1: because there is a change the moment he starts to
Speaker 1: have power, he starts to be really cocky and and
Speaker 1: now he's like begging for help from Canada and he's
Speaker 1: like yeah, yeah, and he's like and then they like
Speaker 1: and the body is morphing into this giant, grotesque baby,
Speaker 1: and he like he trushes his girlfriend and Canada like
Speaker 1: gets out at the last second, and eventually the creepy
Speaker 1: babies all work together, and they they um because Canada
Speaker 1: was too close to what because they bring back Akira first.
Speaker 1: So Akita comes back and and they're like, yo, hey,
Speaker 1: we they straight up this is they straight up pulled
Speaker 1: a dragon ball z where they're like, hey, we prayed
Speaker 1: to your body parts, brought you back because we need
Speaker 1: you to fight this big, big thing. And Ocuda is
Speaker 1: like bet And then so the Acuda creates this um
Speaker 1: it seems like, well, how would you describe it, Erica,
Speaker 1: because I'm still how would you describe that? Like light explosion?
Speaker 1: I mean, and I mean light in the sense of
Speaker 1: like the well, the way it looks and not like
Speaker 1: it's not like it's stomic explosion, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: supposedly and in the beginning um in eight or something,
Speaker 1: I think, uh, supposedly Akada caused World War three and
Speaker 1: set off this giant explosion, this sort of atomic blast
Speaker 1: that kicked off World War three. And now this was
Speaker 1: sort of another like sort of the follow up to that.
Speaker 1: I think that's the one you're talking about, the big yeah,
Speaker 1: the growing explosion that of light in the nick and
Speaker 1: they referenced it as being like the beginning of the
Speaker 1: universe and there's like it gets very philosophical at the end,
Speaker 1: like it really and that's what I love is a
Speaker 1: movie that has me just kind of trying to pick
Speaker 1: away at like, Okay, what is because when they're like
Speaker 1: what happened to uh Tetsuu and like, uh, Canada's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I think we'll see him again,
Speaker 1: like he said, you know, he says right, and that
Speaker 1: left It's all left very sort of ambiguous, which is
Speaker 1: really interesting and it work works very well from the
Speaker 1: because in the manga is it's more clear manga there
Speaker 1: is a definite ending and I don't know again spoiler
Speaker 1: alert for anybody who wants to still read, I would
Speaker 1: highly recommend reading it. But in the in the manga,
Speaker 1: at the end, it's a very definitive that all of
Speaker 1: the espers that like the psychic kids, the babies that
Speaker 1: the psychic babies that if he was talking about, and
Speaker 1: Okada and Tetsuo all ascend to a higher plane of existence.
Speaker 1: And they've sort of been hinting at this throughout the
Speaker 1: entire manga is that this is sort of the natural
Speaker 1: evolution of humans of it's it's a very classic cyberpunk
Speaker 1: theme of transhumanism, and so they send to a higher
Speaker 1: plane in some ways that sort of tetso's at peace. Um.
Speaker 1: Then the U n comes in and provides aid to
Speaker 1: just like in post World War two, the United the
Speaker 1: sort of United Nations are the nations come in and
Speaker 1: um provide aid to Japan, uh, Kannada and k and
Speaker 1: the rest of the resistance fighters established like so that
Speaker 1: I forget what they call it, but um, it's this
Speaker 1: new order order like the Kingdom of New Kingdom of
Speaker 1: Japan essentially and declare independence. Um. And they warn the
Speaker 1: United Nations, Um, hey we still have our friends, the
Speaker 1: psychic friends that we had, the ones that destroyed a
Speaker 1: ton of stuff, like, we still have them in our hearts.
Speaker 1: So watch out, Um, we're independent now. And then you
Speaker 1: see sort of at the end, like also the Joker
Speaker 1: biker gang at some point like starts helping they they
Speaker 1: have joined up with the revolutionaries and everybody sort of
Speaker 1: unites at the and and um, they start a new
Speaker 1: world order with this sort of bike gang that's built
Speaker 1: peace and peaceful society. And so there's a very definite
Speaker 1: happy ending today. Yeah, I know, that's that's what's so interesting,
Speaker 1: not to cut you off, but I really want us
Speaker 1: to really uh talk about because this is this movie
Speaker 1: is so interesting and beautifully political because like we were
Speaker 1: talking about the initial Akira explosion, I get an explosion
Speaker 1: which is very much the fault of the Japanese government
Speaker 1: because they were doing these experiments into this world war,
Speaker 1: which assumes that they kind of didn't take ownership of
Speaker 1: it and allowed it to become this huge thing. And
Speaker 1: I think that's a take. And then on top of
Speaker 1: the take, with the manga of that, that's a very
Speaker 1: important thing because it's something I think that that like
Speaker 1: when it's brought up, I never like how it's brought up,
Speaker 1: because usually it's brought up by a um i'm a
Speaker 1: just aloud to say, a white person, and it's usually
Speaker 1: brought up in an insulting way. But yeah, after World
Speaker 1: War two, uh, the US like invaded Japan and like
Speaker 1: didn't allow them to have a military and kind of
Speaker 1: like just kind of like forced themselves onto that country.
Speaker 1: And I feel like that ending in the manga is
Speaker 1: a response to that. That's that's I feel like a
Speaker 1: Tomo giving his thoughts about that of being like you
Speaker 1: can help us. There there was a lot of sort
Speaker 1: of aid that came into Japan afterwards, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of help with rebuilding, but definitely you know, Japan
Speaker 1: was demilitarized and you know, they weren't allowed to have
Speaker 1: an army. They they you know, they lost the war
Speaker 1: in such a devastating huge way. I mean, you know
Speaker 1: the bombs, when the bombs were dropped, that can you
Speaker 1: even we we cannot comprehend what that was, you know,
Speaker 1: like right now living in this time, like it is
Speaker 1: so much bigger than anybody thinks of now, like for
Speaker 1: even for which is like I remember in physics we
Speaker 1: learned about, you know, just really the devastating effects of
Speaker 1: a nuclear blast and like how huge it was, and
Speaker 1: it really it just devastated Japan and there was It's
Speaker 1: in every all of their media since then, you know,
Speaker 1: in in so many ways, a lot of media like
Speaker 1: Astro Boy and and you know, just so much came
Speaker 1: from that the bomb and and this is no exception,
Speaker 1: and yeah, there was definitely a political statement there, like
Speaker 1: and I I don't know, like it's it's been a
Speaker 1: while since I've read all the manga, but I just
Speaker 1: remember the idea of the the American Navy sitting off shore,
Speaker 1: which also actually mirrors what happened when they first forced
Speaker 1: Japan out of isolationism in the eighteen hundreds. Admiral Perry
Speaker 1: and his navy sat off shore and was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: you're gonna open up trade with us, otherwise we will
Speaker 1: bomb the hell out of you. Um. And so it's
Speaker 1: it's sort of an I imagine would be a nod
Speaker 1: to that, and I it's so it's there's all of
Speaker 1: these anxieties in it and themes in it that are
Speaker 1: very tied up in the history of Japan. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I want to talk about that because it's something that's
Speaker 1: always bugged me. Maybe it's it's and I've said a
Speaker 1: statement like this before and I think I think I
Speaker 1: set this on who shots and not nereifficent about you know,
Speaker 1: um when when when when you are you know, taking
Speaker 1: in a media from a country, you essentially, in short,
Speaker 1: if you're taking a media from a country, if you're
Speaker 1: obsessing over you should also uh know what's going on there,
Speaker 1: and you should also like want to support it. And
Speaker 1: it's always bugged me this idea because when you think
Speaker 1: about the end of World War two and one, the
Speaker 1: fact that uh, the bombs were chosen to drop on
Speaker 1: Japan obviously, just the the bitterness about you know, Pearl
Speaker 1: Harbor whatever, but even then to choose to only do
Speaker 1: it in Japan, and to choose to demilitarize Japan, like
Speaker 1: you you didn't you didn't have those sanctions put on
Speaker 1: anyone else. Uh, and then for it to still be
Speaker 1: technically upholded, there's like there's like the article has not
Speaker 1: been amended yet. There's been I was just looking it
Speaker 1: up to make sure, but like, um, they didn't amend
Speaker 1: the constitution itself, but they they gave more powers to
Speaker 1: the Japan Self Defense Force. But that article needs to
Speaker 1: just be gone like that, like like why are we
Speaker 1: like you know, just I don't know, I just have
Speaker 1: this this weird moral sense of things of just like um,
Speaker 1: like even though I know the world isn't fair, it's
Speaker 1: just like there's just clear basic things that I think,
Speaker 1: like it should be like, Okay, enough time has passed,
Speaker 1: We're we're good because we weren't. Only Japan wasn't the
Speaker 1: only country we went up against, and we've only shows
Speaker 1: one to demilitarize. Yeah, well, you know, I mean it's
Speaker 1: interesting because out of that post world War two deal militarism, demilitarization.
Speaker 1: You know, it can be argued that Japan became a
Speaker 1: world leader um in tech, especially in the eighties because
Speaker 1: a lot of their you know, they literally melted down
Speaker 1: their their guns into plowshares. You know, a lot of
Speaker 1: the scrap metal from their military operations, from from their
Speaker 1: weaponry went directly into tech manufacture, UM and toy making,
Speaker 1: and so you know it in the eighties, it was
Speaker 1: a world power and that led to a lot of
Speaker 1: sort of economic economic anxiety in the West. A lot
Speaker 1: of people, like Japanese was being taught as the language
Speaker 1: of you know, business in all the business schools, UM.
Speaker 1: And you know that's definitely in the background in Okada,
Speaker 1: like in terms of cultural context. You know, it's because
Speaker 1: you can always you can always view media on certain levels,
Speaker 1: and you know, on a surface level, this is about
Speaker 1: psychic kids. And but you know also you see in
Speaker 1: the background, you know, the the unrest against the current
Speaker 1: political uh powers. Well, we've brought this up before as
Speaker 1: far as UM. Whenever people which we get often tweet
Speaker 1: at us and say, like, um, keep politics out of it,
Speaker 1: like politics into it, and it's like, UM, I always
Speaker 1: bring up that Marvel and d C are Western American
Speaker 1: comic books have covered every single war since their inception,
Speaker 1: has been a part of influenced the writers and uh
Speaker 1: with the storylines of these characters. So it's it's fascinating
Speaker 1: to me that you would want And again it's kind
Speaker 1: of like what we were talking about is like what
Speaker 1: influenced what? Well, a lot of these artists are all
Speaker 1: looking at the same events at the same time. They're
Speaker 1: seeing the same news store ra's and and you know,
Speaker 1: seeing the government knocking down you know, people's doors and
Speaker 1: and um, people being pulled out of their home like
Speaker 1: things like that, and it's like, well, this is going
Speaker 1: to create kind of like in what we are in now.
Speaker 1: But hopefully we don't get twenty billion shows about coronavirus.
Speaker 1: But uh really don't need that, just like I didn't
Speaker 1: and didn't get we didn't need don't need twenty shows
Speaker 1: about nine eleven. I don't need twenty shows about coronavirus.
Speaker 1: But however, I think that it can still affect and influence, Uh,
Speaker 1: what horrors come out the idea of isolation, the ideas
Speaker 1: of you know, digital the rise of digital technology, like
Speaker 1: the change in the workforce. Yeah, there's just going to
Speaker 1: be all these themes that I know will make it
Speaker 1: into things. And that's that's how it is. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: to your to your point Anny about Marvel and d C.
Speaker 1: It's just like it's absurd to think like that. You know,
Speaker 1: every major superhero and all of the teams has has
Speaker 1: been straighted punching Hitler like yeah, surgery, you know, and
Speaker 1: X Men is supposed to be an allegory for the
Speaker 1: civil rights movement and straight up possible for you know,
Speaker 1: we don't create art in a vacuum. Yeah, now that's
Speaker 1: what I was gonna say Before I go on, though,
Speaker 1: I do need to clarify that Germany was demilitarized to
Speaker 1: while they're occupying in Germany, they were demilitarized, So they
Speaker 1: just want to clear that up before someone starts to
Speaker 1: say some stuff. It is funny that's sort of different
Speaker 1: treatments that that, you know, we did. I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a lot about that. You know, like
Speaker 1: only one group of American citizens of cultural heritage was
Speaker 1: was really interned in on math in the US, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's Okada is So it's so rife with all these
Speaker 1: incredible interesting themes and for a while, and we see
Speaker 1: it in a lot of jack Needs media. Um, the
Speaker 1: idea of the old struggling with the new. There the
Speaker 1: fear of youth culture in Battle Royal, in the idea
Speaker 1: of like the sort of creepy ring girl or like
Speaker 1: why for a while we were seeing so many horror
Speaker 1: films that featured children Japan. Yeah, well, I guess that
Speaker 1: that do. But definitely specifically in Japan. You know, there's
Speaker 1: the idea of youth culture that we're rejecting cultural norms.
Speaker 1: And you know there's the Bossoku gangs, which is the
Speaker 1: sort of um, the bicycle the bike gangs in Japan,
Speaker 1: and and the the sukaban Oh my gosh, if you
Speaker 1: don't know about to givon, it's the sort of girl
Speaker 1: the schoolgirl gangs, and they'd have all the schoolgirl uniforms,
Speaker 1: but they like mod them out and like put patches
Speaker 1: on them, and you know that sort of and ended
Speaker 1: up turning into so the go Go Yubari style a
Speaker 1: teen girl assassin robe, but in in Okada. And this
Speaker 1: is my read on it, and I'm sure that there
Speaker 1: are there are, you know, academic studies about this idea
Speaker 1: of the children being the ones to inherit this these powers,
Speaker 1: that the next evolution of humanity and the the destruction
Speaker 1: they caused with them is is definitely points to sort
Speaker 1: of a fear of youth culture and you and the
Speaker 1: next generation. And that's not unique to Japan. You know,
Speaker 1: we're always these kids in their TikTok's and they're you know, well,
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, what UM spilling over into Western
Speaker 1: culture stranger things. The Duffer brothers made Eleven, who was
Speaker 1: a child who escapes from a government facility and learns
Speaker 1: that she possesses spirit spiritual natural powers, said that the
Speaker 1: influence of this movie was quote obviously a big one
Speaker 1: on them. Ryan Johnson also said he was influence UM
Speaker 1: when he made Looper, which features a child who's able
Speaker 1: to kill his would be assassin using only his mind.
Speaker 1: So like you were saying it clearly, and then obviously
Speaker 1: Kanye West um Stronger had multiple shot for shot remakes
Speaker 1: of key scenes from from the film. Um. But that's
Speaker 1: just some of the people, some of the art of
Speaker 1: the Western artists that have been heavily influenced. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's beyond Western art. I mean it
Speaker 1: influenced the acceptance of anime because this was the first
Speaker 1: time you've kind of seen an anime that took on
Speaker 1: adult themes in the way and they didn't even get
Speaker 1: as adult as they got in the manga and the
Speaker 1: manga Connecta did drugs. Connecta was smashing. Connecta got someone pregnant,
Speaker 1: and it's and it's very interesting because that that may
Speaker 1: not seem extreme now, but definitely in Japan. I think
Speaker 1: another good way to kind of like, I've been watching
Speaker 1: a lot of gain Tama, which is a I think
Speaker 1: the best way I've heard it describe so far is
Speaker 1: like if it's always sunny meets anime. It's very like
Speaker 1: cultural references, very like, but it still has like they're
Speaker 1: still wholesome, like they're they're they're the worse until someone
Speaker 1: they feel needs to be protected is protected. But there's
Speaker 1: so many direct cultural references, and it's also interesting to
Speaker 1: see just how like how they still uphold like you
Speaker 1: know of if a woman sleeps with a man before
Speaker 1: she's married, it's still such a taboo thing and and
Speaker 1: that's a running joke that they have because something they
Speaker 1: showed throughout the movie that was kind of like all
Speaker 1: this world's going to to blank is like they they
Speaker 1: always had shots of people like making out and feeling
Speaker 1: each other up in the background, and that was like
Speaker 1: such supposed to be such a like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: taboo thing when that's just if a night at Tendance
Speaker 1: of the Trees. Uh, that's a local l a bar reference. Um,
Speaker 1: physical cool affection is not very public. Yeah, there it
Speaker 1: is still you know how I love talking about people
Speaker 1: filling each other up, um, which we will get into
Speaker 1: more after these messages. Gosh and we are back. Who
Speaker 1: was talking about filling up? I do think that that's
Speaker 1: really funny, Iffy, that that is, Uh, that's how we
Speaker 1: show that everything is going to hell, is people like
Speaker 1: making out and whatnot. Why it's it's it is really
Speaker 1: interesting because it you know, as we were talking about, like,
Speaker 1: did just just briefly touch on a couple of things
Speaker 1: that didn't make it into the film that we're in
Speaker 1: the manga, we're yeah, like this sort of storyline with
Speaker 1: k and the revolutionaries and uh, Lady Miako who is
Speaker 1: the leader of the doomsday cult. Um you see her
Speaker 1: very briefly in the movie, but there's a whole storyline
Speaker 1: with her in the manga UM, you know, just themes
Speaker 1: of you know what was interesting and all all sci fi,
Speaker 1: UM and cyberpunk is um retrofuturistic because it reflects the
Speaker 1: esthetic and the anxieties and the themes that are popular
Speaker 1: at a given time that will eventually go out of fashion.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it gets things right for the future. Uh,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's way off because that was just what was
Speaker 1: important to people at this given period of time. And Okada,
Speaker 1: I think, is such an enduring has such an enduring
Speaker 1: legacy because there were these themes that just really resonated
Speaker 1: with people and and a lot of those made it
Speaker 1: into the film and into Western culture and pop culture
Speaker 1: from then on. You know, the idea of the child
Speaker 1: motorcycle gangs and this dystopian landscape, civil unrest, you know,
Speaker 1: versus corrupt governments. Danny mentioned some very specific examples of
Speaker 1: you know, things that I didn't. I didn't. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: of course that makes sense that that's that. But even
Speaker 1: the very famous motorcycle slide, Like every time I see it,
Speaker 1: I was specifically thinking of, um, I know, Stephen Universe,
Speaker 1: Rebecca Sugar, they like actively said that they put it
Speaker 1: in there, but also um Lelo and Stitch. Do you
Speaker 1: remember when Yeah, do you remember when she was trying
Speaker 1: to Stitch was trying to get off the island and
Speaker 1: kept like like, it's just such an iconic I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's like step one in animation school or maybe Matt
Speaker 1: when you get your master's step two. Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: gonna say it's pretty hard. Maybe I said, maybe when
Speaker 1: you get your masters then it's uh, that's the first
Speaker 1: step is learning that animation style. But do the bouncing
Speaker 1: ball exercise and then you do the occulta motorcycle slide.
Speaker 1: I can guarantee you've seen it. And there's this great
Speaker 1: there's a couple of great gifts that compile all of
Speaker 1: the really popular ones. Yeah, just the look of it,
Speaker 1: and and you know, as I said, sort of Blade
Speaker 1: Runner happened concurrently, but Okada is for sure that city landscape,
Speaker 1: that Dystupian cyberpunk landscape is so influential. And in terms
Speaker 1: of fashion, that's like it's definitely hot right now. The
Speaker 1: sort of the red leather jacket, oh oh in a
Speaker 1: Godzilla what's the things? Uh John c Riley's jacket, it
Speaker 1: has the pill he has the pill jacket, says like
Speaker 1: uh for good for good health on it and just yeah,
Speaker 1: it definitely influenced my aesthetic with this sort of bold
Speaker 1: like I mean, red is my favorite color. I love it.
Speaker 1: I've always been a fan of motorcycles. It was super dope.
Speaker 1: But also one thing I like about the motorcycle is
Speaker 1: we off we we were talking about how it's this
Speaker 1: you know, the the time that this movie came out,
Speaker 1: you know, there's this like fear of how fast you know,
Speaker 1: Japan is developing their technology. The bike itself is a
Speaker 1: flex Cannon is a Japanese company, Citizen is a Japanese watchmaker.
Speaker 1: Show like it It's it's not only this dope bike,
Speaker 1: but it has stickers from these prominent Japanese companies that
Speaker 1: are still around and kicking till this day. So so
Speaker 1: like and I just feel that because like it's it's
Speaker 1: it's there's so many like layers to it, because I
Speaker 1: feel like that is what it's like being, you know,
Speaker 1: a part of a culture which you you you can
Speaker 1: make a criticism of it, but you also want to
Speaker 1: make a point to be like, this isn't an invitation
Speaker 1: to like look down on us. This is just to
Speaker 1: let you know that while we have our problems, we
Speaker 1: still out here and and it's and that's one thing
Speaker 1: I love about the bike, and it's probably why I
Speaker 1: put stickers on everything so much, because I just love it.
Speaker 1: But also, yeah, I'm the same. This movie was real
Speaker 1: bad for me because I all already my post team
Speaker 1: purchase that some people are either vehemently against or vehemently
Speaker 1: for is a motorcycle. And this was the worst movie
Speaker 1: to watch because you got a motorcycle, well not yet,
Speaker 1: I was. I was kind of playing it. I asked,
Speaker 1: I asked Instagram should I get a motorcycle? And so
Speaker 1: many people. I had so many messages. My favorite has
Speaker 1: been multiple people being like, you have a daughter. I
Speaker 1: was like, and I have a car to driver around
Speaker 1: and I have I think they mean that your odds
Speaker 1: of not anyways, I'm not going to say my mom
Speaker 1: would be very disappointed in you. Oh yeah, but I
Speaker 1: have This isn't once in a while I think about it,
Speaker 1: and it's ocus fault, mostly like because like I think
Speaker 1: about it, like the wind in my hair, like barreling
Speaker 1: down the road and my awesome leather jackets and on
Speaker 1: this red bike, and I think about it so much
Speaker 1: and you know in l A. It's kind of a
Speaker 1: death sentence, like, yeah, well, it was so funny. One
Speaker 1: of the people, one of the people who were four,
Speaker 1: it was like, look, Manna, I'm gonna keep it funky.
Speaker 1: What you send me a paragraphs? Like it's the one
Speaker 1: of the best, Like it's the best experience I have.
Speaker 1: I love driving to work, wind going through my hair.
Speaker 1: I have been in three accidents. If everybody I know
Speaker 1: with a bike, it's like it's the best thing in
Speaker 1: the world, but you've got to know that it's a
Speaker 1: very good chance you will die. Yeah. Yeah, well it's
Speaker 1: it's so funny because it's like it's it's it's it
Speaker 1: really is the specific l A driving style, which is
Speaker 1: the style that people are driving like they're the only
Speaker 1: car on the road. There's no self awareness, like even
Speaker 1: in a car, there's like you have to think about it.
Speaker 1: You really have to think about the fact that in
Speaker 1: normal days in l A, there is an accident every day.
Speaker 1: That's not normal. Every man they're like, yeah, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: It's not just one. They're they're over a dozen accidents
Speaker 1: every day on the same stretch of road we have.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's yeah, I was gonna say the
Speaker 1: other place though, if you that a lot of people
Speaker 1: have motorcycles that I lived in, its Texas, and the
Speaker 1: same thing everybody in everybody in Texas drives the same way,
Speaker 1: like you're the only one on the road. Um, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it's you do you though, you know, we'll see.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I might end up getting a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of tweets after this episode, people begging me not
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I wanted. Yeah, let's let's you know, geek
Speaker 1: out about Also the animation. I didn't mean to stop
Speaker 1: that combo. But one thing I noticed that was really
Speaker 1: cool and something that I've that you see a lot
Speaker 1: that has to be influenced by this is the light trails, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, like the way the tail light trails and
Speaker 1: that throughout this movie during the motorcycle scenes. I wish
Speaker 1: there was a serialized anime to just have just the
Speaker 1: biker portions of this. And I think that's the only
Speaker 1: remake that I'm interested in, is like a remake that
Speaker 1: is a an anime redone. Yeah, there's a lot to
Speaker 1: add to it. I think that that could be beneficial. Normally,
Speaker 1: I am I feel like if you have something to
Speaker 1: say and to add to it, that is when you're
Speaker 1: allowed to do remake or reboot. But you know that
Speaker 1: being said, for a while, uh, live action was very
Speaker 1: much you know underway, uh supposedly and produce. You know,
Speaker 1: pre production was starting to kick off and Tachot, one
Speaker 1: of my favorite director in the world, was helming it,
Speaker 1: and you know that got shelved um when he started
Speaker 1: to work on Thor. So I do know that they
Speaker 1: were into it, but now uh postponed indefinitely because it
Speaker 1: was postponed indefinitely, well because Thor and because he has
Speaker 1: other projects, and also they were saying they really do
Speaker 1: want to have Asian and Japanese actors in it, which
Speaker 1: I really respect, but Hollywood has not did a good
Speaker 1: job of cultivating those that are well known enough. Honestly though,
Speaker 1: I I feel like that's uh just such a cop
Speaker 1: out because there's so many movies that are released you know,
Speaker 1: luckily I do who shot you? And there are so
Speaker 1: many major movies that are released with unknowns avatar, you know,
Speaker 1: in that rid of like you know, I'm sure we've
Speaker 1: all seen it, the threat of people who passed on stuff.
Speaker 1: And I think Avatar. They wanted Ben afflecked they were
Speaker 1: going to give him ten percent of the movie. He
Speaker 1: said no, and they gave it to an unknown. You
Speaker 1: went from Affleck to unknown. And I feel like that
Speaker 1: doesn't happen for people of color. It has to be
Speaker 1: a name people of color. But if you and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna just flower say it because I know I have
Speaker 1: the facts behind me that you can go and look
Speaker 1: up movies that in major films, I'm talking about multimillion
Speaker 1: dollar films, they feel so comfortable letting white unknown actors
Speaker 1: get roles, but if you're a person of color, you
Speaker 1: have to have a name. But there's no it's it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a trap because if you create no opportunities
Speaker 1: for people of color, but then set this rule that
Speaker 1: if you want people a person of color to elite,
Speaker 1: they have to be a known you set a trap.
Speaker 1: It's it's that's that's a play that you would do
Speaker 1: in magic to screw over someone to be like, ah, yes,
Speaker 1: you have to you have to. Uh will only accept
Speaker 1: people of color if they have roles. Ah. But but
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, we've talked about so many
Speaker 1: of the movies that did like slum dog millionaire, like
Speaker 1: you know, nobody knew anybody there and now and now
Speaker 1: we have our king. We have a brown king that
Speaker 1: we get to you know, you know, I love that
Speaker 1: he's doing all the historical British rules like oh yeah,
Speaker 1: but but that's also like uh to, that's a slum
Speaker 1: slum dog millionaire story because you know, like yeah, like
Speaker 1: because um with um how cash I used to know
Speaker 1: his name like this, but from Captain Phillips, you know,
Speaker 1: after that he was still driving taxicabs like you it's
Speaker 1: very hard for you to jump in. Then um our
Speaker 1: Man's from Aladdin, who was complaining about totally advancing, like
Speaker 1: you can have a banger film and it still is
Speaker 1: like you still have to convince, You still have to convince.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, has anyone heard from Jalizzapparricio from Roma? No,
Speaker 1: Like she was literally nominated for an Academy Award, and
Speaker 1: where is she? She was on the cover of every
Speaker 1: magazine and everyone has forgotten about her. I think she
Speaker 1: might be in like a couple of things, like one
Speaker 1: or two things, but I don't see anyone talking about
Speaker 1: her anymore. I did not recognize that it was dev
Speaker 1: Patel who did slump Yeah, Dev Patel, Gosh, he's yeah.
Speaker 1: But if anybody so so Erica, I completely agree. I
Speaker 1: think that it has to be. I think it would
Speaker 1: be disrespectful if it wasn't a Japanese or Asian America.
Speaker 1: I mean specifically if it should be Japanese. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how I feel too about DBZ. I'm like, I don't
Speaker 1: care if Goku's an alien. He means so much to
Speaker 1: these people that it's almost disrespectful to not have them
Speaker 1: be and so kind of like what what if? But
Speaker 1: these are huge iconic properties that I think you can
Speaker 1: put someone unknown and I think at least someone like
Speaker 1: Taiko Wa Titi or another person of color like Jordan
Speaker 1: Peel who passed on it. However, who knows what's going forward.
Speaker 1: They would not f it up. I don't think. I
Speaker 1: think it's you have if you can, why wouldn't you
Speaker 1: you know? It's it's these are these there are these opportunities,
Speaker 1: and I'm seeing it a lot in anime and in
Speaker 1: you know, sort of cyberpunk stuff where it is a
Speaker 1: lot of stories from Asian countries from Japan and there
Speaker 1: they don't cast many they have like you know, Lana
Speaker 1: Condor is like the token Asian that ends up in
Speaker 1: all of these things, and then that's it. Um And
Speaker 1: so I really just would love to see these stories, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, incorporate people of color. Yeah, and I think
Speaker 1: you're I think you're right, and I think here here's
Speaker 1: the thing. We we have to come to terms with
Speaker 1: the fact that Hollywood will always try and americanize it.
Speaker 1: And it's not always their fault. There's just some people
Speaker 1: who are like, like the same reason people were like
Speaker 1: are waiting for a parasite remake. But here's the thing,
Speaker 1: put more thought into it than doing Uh, New York.
Speaker 1: New York is not like Tokyo like I have. I
Speaker 1: was supposed to go this year, but unfortunately I won't
Speaker 1: be going. But I can tell you just off of
Speaker 1: just looking at it alone. And also if you're trying
Speaker 1: to target the themes, then you're gonna have to make
Speaker 1: this a hyper futurized version of i'd say, like a
Speaker 1: San Francisco a tech hub, because you want somewhere where
Speaker 1: people are experimenting. But that's only if you know that's
Speaker 1: that's only if you for some reason, why not Tokyo.
Speaker 1: Tokyo is such a fun place. I means someone in
Speaker 1: this episode actually had the fun of shooting in Tokyo,
Speaker 1: so they could tell you how how how beautiful and
Speaker 1: how fun and how many great shots you can get
Speaker 1: from Tokyo alone. It's incredible. Yeah, it's it's so incredible.
Speaker 1: I love Tokyo. I have to we have to hamp
Speaker 1: this down. We've we've got the the they said five
Speaker 1: minutes left. We've been talking. I can talk about Akita forever.
Speaker 1: I can. I can just and I like doing movies, uh,
Speaker 1: because there's just it's kind of concise. So I'm probably
Speaker 1: that's probably gonna be all my picks is gonna be
Speaker 1: anime movies. Uh. And we're going to keep the high
Speaker 1: throttle going because the next one I'm probably gonna want
Speaker 1: to do is Redline, which has our friend Liam O'Brien. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That one is so beautiful and again definitely influenced again, huge,
Speaker 1: hugely influenced by Akada. Yeah, if you haven't seen the
Speaker 1: Okada movie, it is kind of like when you see it,
Speaker 1: it's it's like goes in the show. When you see
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, well that's where that came. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: So highly recommends Super Love it. I'm excited to see
Speaker 1: what happens in the future with it, with either with
Speaker 1: live action or you know, they were there was talk
Speaker 1: of more sort of media coming out surrounding it. And
Speaker 1: thanks for letting me talk with you guys about it.
Speaker 1: Of course, talking with you all just always such a treat.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, where can people find you? Erica? Thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on. Where where have you got anything to plug?
Speaker 1: Tell us, give us give it. I am at Erica
Speaker 1: ishi E on Twitter and at the Erica ishi E
Speaker 1: on Instagram. There there's something that might be coming out
Speaker 1: soon that I'm in, but you know, I can never
Speaker 1: you can't really say, just in case it gets pushed
Speaker 1: these days, but yeah, thank you. Just keep up with me.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm on social media a lot, all right, and
Speaker 1: you know me if you add the way on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram, if he's on Twitch, super Punch is gonna
Speaker 1: be back. If you're listening to this now, that means
Speaker 1: Super Punch is officially back. It also was Naomi's birthday,
Speaker 1: so May third, but we're back. Tune in. It's going
Speaker 1: down live and direct. I am at Miss Danny Fernandez
Speaker 1: and all the things I wanted to give a huge
Speaker 1: shout out to our friends at the Perky Nerd. We
Speaker 1: had Tiffany if you remember on she was the shop
Speaker 1: owner on for a Captain Marvel episode. They are still
Speaker 1: taking orders and desperately need them. Their site is up.
Speaker 1: Remember to UH to support your local comic book shops.
Speaker 1: She again is one of the few female owned comic
Speaker 1: book shops in the state. Actually, um so, I want
Speaker 1: to want to keep up with our lady business owners. Uh.
Speaker 1: They're also doing I'm going to be doing a live
Speaker 1: makeup tutorial with them. They like have slots where they're
Speaker 1: teaching you superhero makeup. So I think they're doing like
Speaker 1: a Black Widow and a couple of other inspired looks.
Speaker 1: Um so you can buy a slot for that. Just
Speaker 1: want to keep their lights on. I want to make
Speaker 1: sure that Tiffany stays in business, So hit up the
Speaker 1: Perky Nerd. You can follow them on all their socials
Speaker 1: and like we always say, stay nerdy.